While I always find tough to invest in the financial sector, there are 2 stocks which stand out for me in this sector : GQG and Findi. Unlike a lot of companies which are quite tough to understand due in particular to a complicated accounting, both GQG and Findi are simple businesses, with easy accounting.
GQG is a US active fund manager (listed in Australia) which is regularly getting net inflows thanks to regular outperformance of its funds. Unlike a lot of other active fund managers, they have no particular style of investment and proved to be able to outperform in most market conditions. This is mainly due to their founder (Rajiv Jain) who has a long track record, both with GQG and previous companies where he worked. Even if you do not invest in this company, always interesting to listen to what GQG has to say about the market. Looking at its valuation, GQG still does not look expensive given its profile of regular growth, with a high level of recurring revenue.
Findi is an Indian company (based in Australia). 90 % of their revenues comes from a simple business : install and manage ATM in India. Unlike a lot of other countries, ATM are still popular in India, due to a high level of cash economy. There is a strong visibility on this company, as the management is ready to give all the details regarding the capex and cash flow on average per ATM. There has been a major re-rating for Findi since the middle of last year, as the stock went from around 50 c to almost 4 $ now. This is mainly due to the fact that the company went from a status of a risky company (with high level of debt) to a large cash cow (with net cash now). Last year, their ATM business produced a high level of free cash flow. Looking at their last presentation, you can see that the stock remains really cheap (cf EV/EBITDA) vs its peers, while it has still a significant potential to increase its earnings for different reasons (installing new ATM for banks, expected increase of interchange fees and soon probably able to open their own ATM).
